Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that two cases of the mu variant of the coronavirus were reported in the country. The delta variant makes up the majority of daily cases in Turkey.

Koca spoke about the new variant after a Cabinet meeting where the state of the pandemic - which has claimed more than 52,000 lives in the country since March 2020 - was discussed.

Mu was listed as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization (WHO) last month. It was first documented in Colombia back in January 2021, according to the international health body. It was becoming more prevalent in Colombia and Ecuador, the WHO had warned earlier this month, and was probably resistant to available vaccines.